Some 2,000 Polish teachers, miners, steelworkers and other public sector workers braved heavy rain on Friday to rally in front of government buildings in support of wage demands of underpaid Polish nurses, according to dpa. Hundreds of Polish nurses have pitched camp outside the Prime Minister's Chancellery in Warsaw to draw attention to their wage demands. So far talks between nurses' union officials and the government have proven inconclusive. The conservative government of Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski insists there is no cash available to cover a wage hike for nurses this year. But nurses have vowed to stay in the impromptu "white town" campsite in the city centre until mid-August to secure a wage hike. The nurses' protest is part of a wider strike action in Poland's poorly health sector. Physicians at dozens of hospitals across the country have gone on hunger strike over low wages. Many have also quit their jobs. Hundreds of officers clad in full riot gear made for a heavy police presence at Friday's peaceful public sector protest in Warsaw. An estimated 100 police vans were parked in a side-street adjacent to the protest.
